Invoices

An invoice is a request for payment from a customer. Finance's Invoices are a separate screen from the Main Line Operator invoices in Container Depot — see that guide if you're looking for container handling, storage, and repair billing instead.

#Before you start

• A customer must exist before you can invoice them — see Customers.
• You need the View permission for Invoices (own records or all records) to see the list and open invoices. You need the Create permission for Invoices to create one.
• Recording a payment against an invoice needs a separate Record payment permission — see Record a payment below.
• There's no Edit or Delete control for invoices on these screens — see Current limitations.
• Voiding an invoice needs a separate Void an invoice permission, and the Edit permission for that invoice — see Void an invoice below.
• The Invoice balance check report needs the View permission for Invoices.

Team owners and admins always have access.

#The invoices list

Open Finance > Invoices. Columns: Date, Reference, Title/Name, Customer, Status, Amount, Outstanding. Outstanding is what the customer still owes: the invoice's amount less the payments recorded against it. A void invoice carries a red Void badge beside its status and owes nothing. Sorted newest-first by Date. Select a row to open the invoice.

Amounts on the Finance screens follow your organization's number settings.

The funnel icon opens a filter with Status: All, or Void to list only the void invoices. When your organization has business units, the list has a Business unit column, and the filter also has Business unit: All business units, your main business only, or a unit with its sub-units. Without a choice, the list starts with the unit chosen in the header, and the card title names it. There's no other search or filter beyond the table's own search box, and no export buttons.

Select the create icon on the toolbar to start a new invoice. If you hold the Record payment permission, the Actions menu on this page also has a Record payment item — see Record a payment below. The Actions menu also has Balance check — see Invoice balance check below.

#Create an invoice

1. Select the create icon from the Invoices list.
2. Leave Invoice ID on Auto (checked by default) to have OCTO Ops assign it, or uncheck it and enter your own.
3. Optionally set the Date.
4. Choose the Customer.
5. Optionally enter a Name/memo.
6. When your organization has business units, check the Business unit. It starts with the unit chosen in the header.
7. Add the line items to bill: for each line, choose a Product, and set its quantity and unit price.
8. Optionally enter Description and notes.
9. Select Create invoice.

What happens when you save. OCTO Ops creates the invoice with status Active and a Balance equal to its Total. A line is only added to the invoice if you chose a Product for it — a line left without a product is silently left out, with no warning. If your organization's stock settings are configured to reduce stock at the point of invoicing, each invoiced product line also reduces stock; otherwise stock isn't affected by creating an invoice. No tax is applied to the invoice's Total, even when tax rates are configured under Module settings — see Current limitations. With Auto, the invoice takes the next number after the highest one already used in its series: invoices of every kind (Finance invoices, Container Depot invoices and invoices raised from sales orders) and Container Depot cashier receipts share one number series, as they always have in OCTO Ops, so the next invoice continues from the last of any of them. With business units, an invoice of a unit that is, or sits under, a separate legal entity is numbered in that entity's own sequence.

On success, a toast reads "Your invoice has been saved successfully" and you're taken to the new invoice's profile page. If the form fails validation, the invalid fields are highlighted and a toast reads "Check your records before submitting this form again." Any other error shows a pop-up: "Something went wrong! / Check your records before submitting this form again."

#View an invoice

Open an invoice from the list to see its profile page: reference and status, Name, Description, Customer, Date, Total, and Outstanding (the Total less the payments recorded against it). With business units, the profile also shows the Business unit, with its legal entity in brackets when that is another unit. A Line items table (Product/account, Memo, Qty, Unit price, Line total) appears only when the invoice has line items, and a Payments table (Date, Reference, Amount) appears only when a payment has been recorded against it.

A Print button opens a printable copy of the invoice; a void invoice prints with a large VOID stamp across it. If you may void the invoice, a red Void button sits beside it — see Void an invoice below. There's no Edit control on this page.

#Record a payment

Record payment is reached from the Invoices list's Actions menu, not from an invoice's own profile page. It does not pre-fill the invoice you were looking at — you choose the invoice again from a dropdown that lists every invoice.

1. From the Invoices list, open the Actions menu and select Record payment.
2. Choose the Invoice this payment is against.
3. Choose the Payment method.
4. Enter a Reference.
5. Enter the Amount.
6. Optionally set the Date and Date collected.
7. Optionally enter a Name/memo and Description and notes.
8. Select Record payment.

Before the payment is saved, OCTO Ops checks that you hold the Edit permission for the specific invoice you chose — choosing an invoice you can't edit is rejected.

What happens when you save. OCTO Ops records the payment against the Payment method's account and the receivable account the invoice itself was debited to (Accounts Receivable, or the receivable your Fuel Station settings name for an invoice to a fuel client), and takes the amount off the invoice's Outstanding amount. Several part payments add up: an invoice of 500.00 paid 100.00 and then 300.00 has 100.00 outstanding. A payment larger than what is outstanding, or of zero, is refused and nothing is saved. Two people recording a payment against the same invoice at the same moment are handled one after the other, so both payments count. On an invoice issued to a fuel client from Fuel Station Management, the payment also lowers the outstanding amount the client sees at once.

On success, a toast reads "Your payment has been recorded successfully" and you're taken back to the invoice's profile page (or the Invoices list, if no invoice was selected).

#Void an invoice

Void an invoice that should never have been issued — a wrong price, the wrong customer. Voiding reverses the invoice in the ledger and leaves it on file marked Void; nothing is deleted.

Who. You need the Void an invoice permission and the Edit permission for that invoice. Without them the Void button is not shown.

1. Open the invoice and select the red Void button.
2. Enter a Memo saying why the invoice is voided. It is required — without it the dialog shows "Say why the invoice is voided."
3. Select Void invoice.

What happens. OCTO Ops adds reversing lines to the invoice's ledger, dated today, so the invoice nets to zero on every account. The invoice keeps its original total, but its Outstanding becomes zero, it drops out of the receivable and balance-check reports and out of the Record payment list, and it shows a Void badge and a red banner: "Voided on {date} by {name}: {memo}". Its printed copy carries a VOID stamp. Selecting Void invoice twice, or retrying after a network error, voids the invoice once.

Which invoices. You can void manual Finance invoices, Container Depot invoices, 3PL invoices and Fuel station invoices here, in Finance > Invoices; a Fuel station invoice can also be voided from Fuel Station > Invoices. Voiding releases what the invoice billed so it can be invoiced again. When a Fuel station invoice is voided, its dispenses go back to uninvoiced and the client's bill is cancelled (see Fuel station invoicing). Sales and Purchasing invoices cannot be voided in this version: the button is greyed out and reads "Void this invoice from Sales." (or Purchasing). Raise a credit note in Finance > Credit notes instead.

When it is refused. The button is greyed out, with the reason beside it, when the invoice has a payment recorded against it, has been credited (a credit note or journal), or is a cashier receipt. The reason reads "This invoice has payments or credits against it. Raise a credit note in Finance › Credit notes instead." Raise a credit note to reduce or cancel an invoice that has been paid or credited. An invoice that is already void cannot be voided again, and an invoice whose ledger does not balance is refused with the advice to raise a credit note.

If someone records a payment at the same moment, one of the two is refused and the other goes through; if the invoice is busy, a message asks you to try again.

#Invoice balance check

The Invoice balance check report lists the invoices whose stored outstanding amount doesn't equal their total less the payments and credit notes recorded against them — invoices paid before the fix described above that have had no payment since. The screens already show the right Outstanding for them; the report shows which stored figures are wrong, for example to check exports or other systems that read them. Open it from the Invoices list's Actions menu: Balance check.

Columns: Date, Number, Title/Name, Customer, Total, Payments (how many), Paid, Credited (credit notes a fuel station raised against the invoice), Stored outstanding, Expected outstanding (Total less Paid and Credited), and Difference (stored less expected). With business units, a Business unit column is added and the funnel icon filters by unit. The table has copy, CSV, Excel and print buttons. Select a number to open the invoice.

The report only reads; it never changes an invoice. It lists only the invoices you can see with your View permission. When every invoice agrees, it reads "Every invoice's outstanding amount agrees with its payments."

#Errors you may see

#Current limitations

• A line without a Product chosen is left out of the invoice when you save, without any warning.
• No tax is applied to an invoice's Total, even when tax rates are set up under Module settings.
• There's no way to edit or delete an invoice from these screens; use Void or a credit note.
• An invoice that has payments or credits cannot be voided; raise a credit note instead.
• Record payment is only reachable from the Invoices list's Actions menu, and it doesn't pre-fill the invoice you came from.
• A new invoice always starts with status Active, whatever other statuses might otherwise apply.
• If someone else is saving an invoice or cashier receipt at the same moment, your save can briefly be refused with the pop-up "Another document in this series is being numbered right now. Try again in a moment." Nothing is saved, and saving again a moment later works.
• Because Invoices, Bills & Payments, Journals, and Credit Notes share how they're stored behind the scenes, a permission for one of these submodules can sometimes let you open a record that actually belongs to a different one, if you know or guess its link — see Finance Current limitations.